


The Only Other Sound

by kaesaria



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Captivity, Dark, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Mental Instability, Stream of Consciousness, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 07:02:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8002846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaesaria/pseuds/kaesaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Hang on, Tony, we’re coming</i>, Steve says, but he doesn’t say it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only Other Sound

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for Cap/Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang (Round 13: [Marvel](http://capim-tinybang.tumblr.com/post/150208967424/cap-im-tiny-rb-round-13-marvel)). Please check out [ranoutofrun's](http://ranoutofrun.tumblr.com/) [lovely art](http://capim-tinybang.tumblr.com/post/150208967424/cap-im-tiny-rb-round-13-marvel)!
> 
> Why trot out the old captive-Tony trope once when you can do it ~~twice~~ three times and counting? ;)) 
> 
> **Please mind the tags.** This is not a feel-good fic. Extra warnings for seriously unhappy thoughts and (possible, depending on how you read it) suicidal ideation.
> 
>  **UPDATE 09/13/2016:** And now there's [**a beautiful podfic**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8031481) of this by the amazing [Tipsy_Kitty](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Tipsy_Kitty/pseuds/Tipsy_Kitty) and her amazing (seriously, no lie, _amazing_ ) voice. Please, do yourself a favor and go listen to it. You can stream it right here from AO3. Not even pimping the story, her recording is out of this world. She takes this little thing to places I'd never even imagined. (Thank you so much!!!)

Space, but no space.  Open, but no opening.

 _Hang on, Tony, we’re coming; you just have to hang on a little longer,_ Steve says, but he doesn’t say it.

Five feet by five feet square.  Pythagoras says he can lay down on the diagonal, 7.07 feet and just enough space for Tony’s hair to clear the corner and his boots to not touch the glass.  But it’s not glass, get it right Tony, details matter—it’s polymethyl methacrylate, but not, too thin and too strong.  Tony’s too thin now, but not too strong.  Shoulder bones poking, collar bones like alien ridges sticking out of his skin.  It’s not fair, details matter, bones poking through flesh add their own layer of misery, points of impact that scrape skin against the cold stone, every little hurt counts.

If he sits still in the middle, relaxes the muscles inside his head, medial rectus loosening and lateral rectus letting go, it blurs, everything blurs, it disappears and Tony’s free.  He’s free and he should let go, nothing to hold onto anyway—

 _Hold onto me,_ Steve says, but he doesn’t say it.

Tony listens, anyway, ocular motor systems reengage and he can see the blood, dirty smears of fear and frenzy where he had pounded against the—glass, fuck it, he’s going to call it glass, what fucking difference does it make.  Transparent red like a tissue culture under a microscope, glowing red like a dark room, everything familiar (familiar, familiar, too goddamn familiar) but all skewed sinister, foreboding, forbidden.  Steve is forbidden.  He left, left Tony and the Avengers—he’s got his own Avengers now.  He’s not coming.  No one is coming.

 _I’m sorry,_ Steve says, _I forgive you,_ he doesn’t say.

“It doesn’t matter,” Tony says, “I’m letting go,” he tells him and the words don’t echo.  Not words at all, just smears of noise that wheeze through his throat like an abrasion, another little hurt and they disappear before they’re out of his mouth.  Polymethyl methacrylate, but not, enhanced and alien and skewed off kilter.  It sucks up noise, no reverberations at all, no reflection of sound waves or light waves, no admittance of pain, of misery, of desperation.  It’s impossible.  There’s nothing to reflect.  Tony laughs, cackles, cracks.

Noise, but no sound.  Time, but no time left.

Tony lives here, but no one cares.  Tony dies here, and no one knows.

Metal and stone and red smears of regret, of squalor and suffering.  There, but not there.  Nothing to hold onto, nothing to let go.

 _Tony_ , Steve says, doesn’t say.  _Tony, I’m here, I’m going to get you out._

He’s pounding at the glass now, but there’s no resonance, no reverberations and Tony watches.  Impossible.  He’ll go away soon.  Cold stone under him and polymethyl methacrylate at his back.  The twisted edges of his broken suit are cutting into skin, more red smears but it doesn’t matter.  Steve will leave soon, he always leaves.

Dead air and dead hope.  Tony stares with dead eyes, watches the hallucination, because why the fuck not.  Dead fingers dig into alien spaces between jutting ribs, one with jagged red nails and one covered in metal.  It hurts, because why the fuck not, every little hurt counts, death hurts and Tony is beyond caring.

Steve is still hitting the glass, pounding with a fist that starts to shatter.  More transparent red smears, dark and dirty.  Steve’s face is twisted, angry, anxious.  Impossible.  Tony stares with dead eyes, his hand goes to the stone, broken nails dig into the spaces between slabs, gripping, another sharp hurt that reverberates up his dead body.  No grip, but he grips.  No hold, but he holds on.

The glass— _cracks_.

And Steve’s face cracks open.  “Tony,” he gasps, and the sound—enters, echoes, envelopes.   _Exists._  

“I’m getting you out,” Steve says, he _says_ : “God, Tony, you gotta hold on, please.”

Tony lets go.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I’m using this to fill the _Isolation_ box on my Hurt/Comfort bingo card (Round 7). 
> 
> Story title is from the poem _Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening_ by Robert Frost.
> 
> All feedback is hugely appreciated. You can also discuss this story (or anything else) with me on [Tumblr](http://kaesaria.tumblr.com/). **(ETA: And now also on Imzy.[Come play with me!](https://www.imzy.com/kaesaria))**
> 
> BTW: I'm still [taking prompts](http://kaesaria.tumblr.com/post/147474213969/prompt-me-please). Send me a story idea, make my day. ;))

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] The Only Other Sound | written by kaesaria](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031481) by [Tipsy_Kitty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tipsy_Kitty/pseuds/Tipsy_Kitty)




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